After paying Toledo $1.2 million to make the trip to Davis Wade Stadium and hand Mississippi State a 24-point loss last September, the Bulldogs are spending even more to welcome another team from the Mid-American Conference to Starkville in 2025. And that team, Northern Illinois, pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2024 college football season by defeating Notre Dame.

Per a public records request obtained by The Dispatch, MSU will pay the Huskies $1.4 million for the Sept. 20 matchup, the first-ever meeting between the two teams. It will be the last of four straight non-conference games to open the Bulldogs’ season. Head coach Jeff Lebby’s team will open the year at Southern Miss on Aug. 30, then host Arizona State and Alcorn State on the first two Saturdays of September.

The Bulldogs are 2-0 all time against Alcorn State, with previous wins in 2010 and 2013. MSU faced Arizona State for the first time last fall, losing 30-23 on the road to a Sun Devils team that won the Big 12 and reached the College Football Playoff. With six straight wins against Southern Miss, the Bulldogs have taken a 16-14-1 lead in the all-time series; the last Golden Eagles win came in 1988 in Jackson.

The Dispatch broke down MSU’s non-conference payouts for the 2025 season below.

Southern Miss

The game in Hattiesburg completes a three-game contract originally signed in 2017 by former MSU athletic director John Cohen and former Southern Miss athletic director Jon Gilbert. The Bulldogs paid the Golden Eagles $1.2 million for a 2019 game in Starkville, but the 2023 and 2025 games are considered a home-and-home and thus no compensation will be exchanged.

The upcoming 2025 game was originally scheduled for 2024, but was moved back a year with an addendum signed by the two athletic directors in March 2018. Officials from the Sun Belt Conference worked the 2023 game at Davis Wade Stadium, while Southeastern Conference officials will work the game this year.

MSU will be allotted 5,000 tickets for its fans, which includes band members. 3,000 of those allotted tickets must be sideline seats.

Arizona State

This year’s game completes a home-and-home agreement signed in 2018 and former Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson, so no compensation will be exchanged. The Bulldogs will provide the Sun Devils with 350 complimentary tickets. Last year’s game in Tempe used SEC officials, and Big 12 officials will work the game on Sept. 6 in Starkville.

Alcorn State

The two teams originally signed an agreement in February 2016 to play a game in Starkville in September 2020, but in 2018 the schools’ athletic directors agreed to move the game to 2025. It was a fortuitous decision in hindsight, given that the SEC played a conference-only schedule in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MSU was to pay Alcorn State $400,000 per the original 2016 agreement, with the amount increased to $475,000 in the 2018 addendum. The Bulldogs will allot 2,500 tickets for Alcorn State to sell to its fans, in addition to 600 complimentary tickets for team-affiliated personnel. SEC officials will work the game.

Northern Illinois

Cohen and Northern Illinois athletic director signed the agreement for the Sept. 20 game in May of 2020, with MSU on the hook for $1.4 million. MSU will provide 500 complimentary tickets for the Huskies, with any band members eating into that allotment. An SEC officiating crew will work the game, with the Bulldogs responsible for compensating the officials.